Rethinking Imitation in Marketing Strategy

Despite relatively little attention and a generally negative view among both academic researchers and managers, we propose that imitation should be an explicit and important consideration in marketing strategy-making and may often be a more attractive option than widely believed. Synthesizing fragmented extant knowledge and expanding upon recent work regarding the nature of imitation we propose a new conceptualization offering a balanced and comprehensive view of imitation and its role in firm strategy-making. Building upon this we offer a new typology of different imitation options that managers may usefully consider as part of their strategy-making and identify their associated costs, benefits, and risks that can be evaluated in doing so. We also provide initial insights into marketplace contingencies impacting which of these imitation options are likely to be relatively more or less attractive as part of a business strategy. To further this new thinking about imitation, we develop an allied research agenda that offers a platform for a new stream of marketing strategy research. By changing the framing of imitation, we seek to provoke managers to alter their strategy-making in ways that will not only benefit customers, imitators, and even imitatees, but may also improve economic growth and social welfare.